Whilst using filesystem::path (v1.37) , I found I wanted the following functionality: Typedefs added for reference and const_reference and a push_back function, as follows typedef string_type& reference; typedef const string_type& const_reference; inline void push_back(const_reference path) { *this /= path; } This would allow use of std::back_inserter with stl algorithms such as Boost::filesystem::path src("dir1/./dir2"); Boost::filesystem::path target; Std::remove_copy(src.begin(), src.end(), std::back_inserter(target), "."); I would also like to see pop_back() but this may not be as simple to implement, I'll have to check the code Rob PS - My first post so I hope I'm on the right list, right message format, etc.